Mum discovers Parkinson's after a wave

Glenda Reichman thought something was amiss when she went to wave out the car window at a friend.

Rather than waving with her dominant right hand, she subconsciously used her left.

The Sydney mother-of-two, now 49, then noticed her right hand fingers were "sluggish".

She went to her doctor to find out what was wrong and was referred to a neurologist for tests.

It was then she was given the news she had early onset Parkinson's disease, the same condition that actor Robin Williams was in the early stages of when he was found dead in August.

The physical symptoms of the disease typically start on one side of the body, usually the hand.

For Ms Reichman, that diagnosis was ten years ago.

Back then, the former pharmacist who at the time ran at-home daycare made a decision to keep her disease a secret from her friends and extended family.

Her symptoms were only mild, so she was able to keep the fact that she had the degenerative central nervous system disorder to herself.

"My husband and I came to the conclusion that nobody needed to know," Ms Reichman said.

In April this year - she decided to "come out" to her extended family and friends.

"The main reason I came out was to create awareness that this is also a young persons' disease," she says.

It's often considered an illness only affecting the elderly but 20 per cent of people living with Parkinson's in Australia are aged under 65 years.

Miriam Dixon, CEO of Parkinson's NSW, says many Australians are living in silence because of the stigma surrounding Parkinson's disease.

There are 80,000 people in Australia with Parkinson's disease and many more who are afraid to talk about the disease with their friends and family, Ms Dixon said on Thursday, speaking during Parkinson's Awareness Week.

"The symptoms of Parkinson's disease can be quite confronting, with changes in movement and speech meaning that people may be perceived as drunk," Ms Dixon said.

"There is not a great understanding of Parkinson's disease in the wider community and we urge people to start an open conversation about Parkinson's to remove the stigma."

For Ms Reichman the stigma that Ms Dixon talks about was one of the main reasons she only told her immediate family she had the disease.

"I was young and running a business from home," Ms Reichman said.

"I thought - this is an old person's disease, people are going to look at me and look for those Parkinson's symptoms. I didn't want people looking at me for that reason.

"So that's how it remained for ten years."

A recent US study, published in the journal Neurology, found depression and anxiety are twice as common in people newly-diagnosed with Parkinson's disease compared with the general population.